Black-and-white silver halide photographic materials generally used (for example, for X-ray photography, for photomechanical process, as a microfilm and a negative film) are developed with development processing comprising a development step using an alkaline developing solution comprising hydroquinone as a developing agent, and 3-pyrazolidone based compounds or aminophenol based compounds as an auxiliary developing agent, a fixing step and a washing step in this order to form an image. Above all, in particular, an X-ray photographic material contains a comparatively large amount of silver halide and is subjected to development processing with a high active developing solution containing a large amount hydroquinone developing agent for achieving rapid processing. A large quantity of such a developing solution is replenished against air oxidation to maintain high activity. However, the toxicity and safety of hydroquinone itself have become a problem. The methods of using ascorbic acid and the like as a substitute for hydroquinone as a developing agent are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,688,549, 5,278,035, 5,236,816, 5,098,819 and JP-A-3-249756 (the term "JP-A" as used herein refers to "a published unexamined Japanese patent application"). However, there are no descriptions about methods for stably processing photographic materials using them by means of an automatic processor, further, a processing method comprising developing a silver halide photographic material with replenishing a replenisher at a reduced replenishing rate per unit area of the photographic material has not been known yet.